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Better Together, an initiative of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America, Kennedy School of Government

BetterTogether provides interactive ways to celebrate and learn from the ways that Americans are connecting, and provides tools and strategies to reconnect with others.   BetterTogether is an initiative of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America at Harvard University. The Saguaro Seminar issued the report Better Together, in December of 2000, calling for a nationwide campaign to redirect a downward spiral of civic apathy. Warning that the national stockpile of "social capital" – our reserve of personal bonds and fellowship – is seriously depleted, the report outlined the framework for sustained, broad-based social change to restore America’s civic virtue. Launched by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, the Saguaro Seminar drew its 30 participants from academia, the arts, clergy, business and the top leaders and policymakers of both major political parties. Saguaro members studied the essential character of public participation in their effort to develop remedies to redirect a decades-long decline.

..."We must learn to
view the world through a
social capital lens," said Lew Feldstein of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and co-chair of the Saguaro Seminar. "We need to look at front porches as crime fighting tools, treat picnics as public health efforts and see choral groups as occasions of democracy. We will become a better place when assessing social capital impact becomes a standard part of decision-making."...

IN STORES NOW....BETTERTOGETHER:
THE BOOK, by Robert D. Putnam and Lewis Feldstein.

In his national best seller Bowling Alone Robert Putnam decried the collapse of America’s social institutions. But while traveling to promote the book, one question came up at every appearance: what can we do to end the atrophy of America’s civic vitality. What can bring us together again? [more...]

For the Press Release click here